by admin | Oct 24, 2011 | Books, Christmas, Historical
MY REVIEW:
I finished reading “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” a few hours ago but as I sit here gathering my thoughts to review it, I still find myself tearing up. This story contains such a powerful message of hope and love that it touched something deep within me. I have read most of Susan May Warren’s novels and have come to expect a high standard of excellence from her. I always enjoy her books and usually glean something extra from them but there is something about “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” that makes it particularly special. This story would be perfect for a Hallmark Christmas movie.
Featuring four people who weather a winter storm together in a storm house, this story is one of restoration and healing. Each of the characters labors under false perceptions about themselves and the others are used to speak truth into their lives. I really don’t know how to describe this book without totally giving away the plot. Just let me say that it is one you absolutely don’t want to pass up. I loved it and consider it to be required Christmas reading. It will join the other books in my Christmas book basket.
This book was provided for review by LitFuse Publicity.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Hope finds the hopeless when a storm hits.
It’s Christmas weekend 1949, and despite the threat of a storm, the townspeople of Frost are determined to continue their holiday traditions, if only as a means to forget the war that they had all just suffered through. But the suffering hasn’t ended for Dottie Morgan who lost her only son in the war. She’s preparing to wallow in her isolation for the weekend, when Violet, nearly a spinster at age 29, dares to make a request that will force Dottie to publicly revive the memory of her dead son.
When a storm traps the two women at home with a strange young man who has an unbelievable confession and a neighbor with more to do with Violet’s past than she would like, no one can predict how this Christmas will give them all a second chance.
Read an excerpt HERE and find out the story behind the novel.
Purchase a copy of Baby, It’s Cold Outside HERE.
Read what the other reviewers are saying here.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Susan May Warren is an award-winning, best-selling author of over twenty-five novels, many of which have won the Inspirational Readers Choice Award, the ACFW Book of the Year award, the Rita Award, and have been Christy finalists. After serving as a missionary for eight years in Russia, Susan returned home to a small town on Minnesota’s beautiful Lake Superior shore where she, her four children, and her husband are active in their local church.
Susan’s larger than life characters and layered plots have won her acclaim with readers and reviewers alike. A seasoned women’s events and retreats speaker, she’s a popular writing teacher at conferences around the nation and the author of the beginning writer’s workbook: From the Inside-Out: discover, create and publish the novel in you!. She is also the founder of www.MyBookTherapy.com, a story-crafting service that helps authors discover their voice.
Susan makes her home in northern Minnesota, where she is busy cheering on her two sons in football, and her daughter in local theater productions (and desperately missing her college-age son!)
A full listing of her titles, reviews and awards can be found at: www.susanmaywarren.com.
CHRISTMAS PARTY/GIVEAWAY:
Baby, It’s Cold Outside – warm up with a Kindle Fire from Susan May Warren
Warm up to Christmas early this year with Susan May Warren’s Baby, It’s Cold Outside! To celebrate the release of her new Christmas book with Summerside Press, she and the publisher are giving away a Kindle Fire and hosting an early Christmas Party on Facebook!
One festive winner will receive:
- A brand new Kindle Fire
- Baby, It’s Cold Outside by Susan May Warren
Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. Giveaway ends on 10/26!
But, wait there’s more! Join Susan May Warren on 10/27 for merriment and a few early Christmas presents at her Baby, It’s Cold Outside Christmas party! Grab your Christmas sweaters, socks and pj’s and join Susan and a few friends for a fireside chat about her recent books (Heiress & Baby, It’s Cold Outside), holiday traditions, favorite Christmas recipes, a trivia contest and more! Invite your friends and don’t miss the fun!
RSVP here and we’ll see you on October 27th at 5 PM PST / 8 PM EST!
by admin | Sep 22, 2011 | Amish, Books, Christmas, Romance
This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Allianceis introducingNaomi’s GiftZondervan (September 12, 2011)byAmy ClipstonABOUT THE AUTHOR:
From Amy:
A native of New Jersey, I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. I often joke that my fiction writing “career” began in elementary school as I wrote and shared silly stories with a close friend.
In 1991, I graduated from high school, and my parents and I moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia. My father retired, and my mother went to work full-time. I attended Virginia Wesleyan College in Norfolk, and I graduated with a degree in communications. I met my husband, Joe, during my senior year in college, a few days after my father had a massive stroke. Joe and I clicked instantly, and after a couple of months we started dating. We married four years later.
After graduating from VWC, I took a summer job with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Norfolk District, which turned into an eleven-year career. I worked in the Public Affairs Office for four years and then moved into Planning as a writer/editor.
One day while surfing the Internet for a professional editor’s group, I accidentally found a local fiction writing group, Chesapeake Romance Writers. I attended a meeting and I met writers in all stages of their careers. The group helped me realize that I did want to be an author, and it was my dream to see my name on the cover of one of my novels. Through Chesapeake Romance Writers, I learned how to plot, write, and edit a novel, and I also learned how to pursue an agent. I signed with Mary Sue Seymour at the Seymour Agency in 2006, shortly before Joe and I moved my parents and our sons to North Carolina.
My dream came true when I sold my first book in 2007. Holding my first book, A Gift of Grace, in my hands was exhilarating and surreal.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Take a trip to Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania, where you’ll meet the women of the Kauffman Amish Bakery in Lancaster County. As each woman’s story unfolds, you will share in her heartaches, trials, joys, dreams … and secrets. You’ll discover how the simplicity of the Amish lifestyle can clash with the ‘English’ way of life—and the decisions and consequences that follow. Most importantly, you will be encouraged by the hope and faith of these women, and the importance they place on their families. Naomi’s Gift re-introduces twenty-four-year-old Naomi King, who has been burned twice by love and has all but given up on marriage and children. As Christmas approaches—a time of family, faith, and hope for many others—Naomi is more certain than ever her life will be spent as an old maid, helping with the family’s quilting business and taking care of her eight siblings. Then she meets Caleb, a young widower with a 7-year-old daughter, and her world is once again turned upside-down. Naomi’s story of romantic trial and error and youthful insecurities has universal appeal. Author Amy Clipston artfully paints a panorama of simple lives full of complex relationships, and she carefully explores cultural differences and human similarities, with inspirational results. Naomi’s Gift includes all the details of Amish life that Clipston’s fans enjoy, while delivering the compelling stories and strong characters that continue to draw legions of new readers.
If you’d like to read the first chapter of Naomi’s Gift, go HERE.
Learn more about Amy and her books on her Website.
MY REVIEW:
Naomi’s Gift is a quick to read novella that gives the reader a glimpse of life among the Amish as the Christmas season approaches. Although the Amish may seem quaint and certainly different from the world known by those of the English persuasion, Clipson’s narrative reveals that in many respects they are much like people everywhere. One of the characters of Naomi’s Gift is even a busybody/gossip which totally blows the perception of Amish perfection out of the water.
Because of two past failed relationships, Naomi King has resigned herself to a life caring for her younger brothers and sisters. She is certain that the Lord must not have a husband and children in his plans for her. As Christmas draws near, time spent with a young girl and her widowed father reopens her heart and makes her hope once again for love. Caleb Schmucker’s grief over his wife’s death two years previous has kept him just going through the motions of living and taking care of his daughter Susie. Each encounter with Naomi has touched his heart and caused him to reconsider plans for his future. However, detractors are at work to keep them apart. Caleb’s sister has other plans for him and goes to great lengths to implement them. Naomi’s own mother discourages her interest in Caleb and she hears and sees things that tend to support the fact that Caleb could not be the man for her.
Naomi’s Gift is a sweet story that would be perfect for a relaxing break during the hectic days leading up to Christmas.
by admin | Sep 20, 2011 | Amish, Books, Christmas, Contemporary Fiction
MY REVIEW:
A Lancaster County Christmas is an Amish Christmas novella that could be read in one sitting on a lazy afternoon. The reader will quickly find herself immersed in the deftly crafted story filled with well-defined characters. The author has not wasted her time on nonessentials but has made every sentence count.
Although Jaime Fitzpatrick and Mattie Riehl are from widely divergent backgrounds, each carries her own personal pain that influences every aspect of her life including her relationship with the Lord. Jaime’s grief after her mother’s death has resulted in a dependence on sleep medication and a desperate need to reconnect with the father who abandoned her as an infant. Mattie’s failure to have another child has sent her into a depression and the need to overprotect her one son. Little could either of them imagine that one small whistle left behind at the doctor’s office and a huge snowstorm could change their lives forever.
When the Fitzpatricks are forced to spend several days at the home of the Amish family of Sol and Mattie Riehl, each person in the home is touched by their encounter. Several plot twists keep the story moving along. A Lancaster County Christmas may not be the typical story about a Christmas celebration but the intended message of “Emmanuel, God With Us” comes across very clearly.
A tender and touching story, A Lancaster County Christmas is one book that could be enjoyed each year during the holiday season. I would highly recommend it.
This book was provided for review by LitFuse Publicity.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Jaime and C. J. Fitzpatrick began their married life as most couples do–in love and looking forward to a bright future together. But four years later they’ve drifted apart and are almost ready to call it quits.
Mattie Riehl was hoping to give her husband Sol the Christmas gift they have both longed for–news that a baby was on the way. But as usual, she is disappointed. The holidays bring an acute awareness to Mattie that her dream of a big family isn’t likely to become a reality.
Then a winter storm raging outside blows the Fitzpatricks into the Riehl home–and into a much slower pace of life. Can these two couples from different worlds help each other understand the true meaning of love this Christmas?
With her trademark plot twists and attention to detail, Suzanne Woods Fisher offers readers a beautiful Christmas story of love, forgiveness, and what truly matters in life.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Her interest in the Amish began with her grandfather, W.D. Benedict, who was raised Plain. She has many, many Plain relatives living in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and travels back to Pennsylvania, as well as to Ohio, a couple of times each year for research.
Suzanne has a great admiration for the Plain people and believes they provide wonderful examples to the world. In both her fiction and non-fiction books, she has an underlying theme: You don’t have to “go Amish” to incorporate many of their principles–simplicity, living with less, appreciating nature, forgiving others more readily– into your life.
When Suzanne isn’t writing or bragging to her friends about her first new grandbaby (!), she is raising puppies for Guide Dogs for the Blind. To Suzanne’s way of thinking, you just can’t take life too seriously when a puppy is tearing through your house with someone’s underwear in its mouth.
Suzanne can be found on-line at: www.suzannewoodsfisher.com.
iPad Giveaway:
To celebrate the release of her first Christmas book, Suzanne Woods Fisher has teamed up with her publisher, Revell, to bring you the “Christmas in September” iPad Giveaway! The winner will be announced on 9/27 at the A Lancaster County Christmas Facebook Party! Details below. Tell your friends and join in the fun (9/7-9/27).
Oh and be sure to follow the blog tour HERE – many of the bloggers have copies of the book to giveaway!
Suzanne and Revell will be presenting one merry winner with a Christmas Prize Pack (valued at over $600):
A Brand New iPad 2 with Wi-Fi
$25 gift certificate to iTunes
A copy of A Lancaster County Christmas
To enter, click HERE. But, hurry the giveaway ends on 9/26.
But, wait! There’s more! The winner will be announced at the A Lancaster County Christmas Facebook Party on 9/27 at Suzanne’s author page. During the party she’ll be revealing something *BIG* – you won’t want to miss it. She’ll also be hosting a book chat, trivia contest and giving away a few early Christmas presents! Hope to see you there.
by admin | Sep 16, 2011 | Amish, Books, Christmas, Romance
MY REVIEW:
Christmas in Sugarcreek is an easily read, sweet Amish romance that is just right for a lazy afternoon by the fire with a warm beverage. In this story, the reader returns to the small town of Sugarcreek where Judith Graber might just receive a Christmas surprise she never expected.
Judith is the quintessential “good girl”. In her opinion, everyone in her family depends on her way too much and seem to take her for granted. But being the good girl that she is, she stuffs her dissatisfaction and continues to help where needed without complaint. Just when she thinks she cannot handle another extra responsibility, her father hires a temporary employee to help her in the family store. Unfortunately that helper turns out to be Ben Knox, the former “bad boy” of Sugarcreek before he left town. Although they have both matured, Judith is not sure she can trust Ben because of everything she has heard about him. But as the two are forced to spend many hours working together, Judith slowly begins to realize that Ben is not the person she thought he was.
Yes, this is one of those “good girl” falls in love with the “bad boy” romances but it is one with a difference. Christmas in Sugarcreek teaches a valuable lesson about judging people by appearances or actions without looking to see the true inner person. Although the outcome of the story is obvious from the beginning, it is a charming and delightful read.
This book was provided for review by the Amazon Vine™ Program.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Judith Graber has always been the obedient daughter. When her older brother Josh struggled with his love life, she offered wise counsel. When her younger brother Caleb flirted with the idea of leaving their order, she firmly told him he was wrong. Over the years, she’s watched her younger siblings, helped around the house, and worked in her family’s store during her spare time. Judith feels overworked, overlooked, and underappreciated this holiday season.
But everything changes when her father hires Ben Knox.
Ben Knox is the “bad boy” of Sugarcreek. Though he’s never considered jumping the fence, he’s certainly never tried to be anything close to dutiful. Two years ago he left Sugarcreek under a cloud of shame. Rumors circulated that his rumspringa had been filled with more than the usual harmless explorations.
Now he’s back and working side by side with Judith.
As the chaos of the holiday season threatens to sap all joy, sparks fly between Ben and Judith. But Judith steels herself to ignore her infatuation. The last thing she wants to be is just one more girl who falls under Ben’s spell. Ben, on the other hand, wants Judith to realize there’s more to him than his bad reputation. When he fled Sugarcreek, he was running from a disruptive home life. Now that he’s back, he wants a fresh beginning.
Could this Christmas season bring love and a new life for the unlikeliest pair in Sugarcreek?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Shelley Shepard Gray is the beloved author of the Sisters of the Heart series, including Hidden, Wanted, and Forgiven. Before writing, she was a teacher in both Texas and Colorado. She now writes full time and lives in southern Ohio with her husband and two children. When not writing, Shelley volunteers at church, reads, and enjoys walking her miniature dachshund on her town’s scenic bike trail.
by admin | Dec 2, 2010 | Advent, Christmas
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this.
Isaiah 9:6-7
by admin | Dec 1, 2010 | Advent, Books, Christmas, Nonfiction
MY REVIEW:
Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room is a tiny little devotional for the advent season. Written to help families prepare for Christmas, it contains a daily reading, scriptures and scripture references, discussion questions, a daily prayer, songs, and spaces for notes. The daily readings are simple enough for children to understand and brief enough to hold their attention. The discussion questions are also easily understood but designed to stimulate thoughts and conversation.
Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room would be a good choice for a home school family but others would probably also enjoy it. The only disadvantage I noted was the extremely small type. Some may also object to the price of such a small book.
This book was provided for review by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
How many Christmas mornings have you found your family gathered around the tree with presents beautifully wrapped and a scrumptious feast on the table, but with hearts that have not been prepared to truly take in the wonder of God become human? Not this year. Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room, a family Advent devotional from Bible teacher and mom Nancy Guthrie, is designed to bring your family together during a season that is oftentimes too much about programs and presents, and simply not enough about Jesus. Along with devotions for every day in December, this resource includes explanations of some hard-to-understand aspects of popular Christmas carols, and discussion questions to draw in your elementary through high school-aged kids, transforming this time together from a dry lecture into a treasured family experience.
Read the first chapter of Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room here.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Nancy has written two devotionals: The One Year Book of Hope (also Tyndale), a daily devotional for people who are hurting or grieving, and One Year of Dinner Table Devotions and Discussion Starters. Nancy has a heart for in-depth Bible study, and her books Hoping for Something Better (a study of the book of Hebrews) and Hearing Jesus Speak into Your Sorrow are an outgrowth of that love. Nancy and her husband, David, cowrote When Your Family’s Lost a Loved One. The Guthries have seen God continue to use their loss to minister to other people going through loss in a variety of ways, including serving as cohosts for a new production of the GriefShare video series. GriefShare is a 13-week video curriculum series that is used to facilitate weekly grief groups in more than 6,000 churches nationwide.
Nancy speaks regularly at women’s retreats and evangelistic events nationally and internationally, including recent events at The Brooklyn Tabernacle, Second Baptist Church of Houston, a Ravi Zacharias International Ministries Conference, and a women’s conference in Scotland. Nancy has worked in the Christian publishing industry for over 20 years as a publicist and special project editor. Nancy and her husband, David, and son, Matt, make their home in Nashville, Tennessee, where they attend Christ Presbyterian Church (Presbyterian Church in America).
